The bar for Island Sanctuary and Criterion Dungeons are very high

[MistakeNot]

1. Job design: one need only see the dps forums and healer forums to find people quitting in large numbers. The game is bleeding healers and a lot of samurai have just left their job.
2. Lack of repeatable content coupled with delays: There's simply nothing to do at level cap if you are midcore or casual that cant be completed in a couple of hours.
-SE dropped the ball AGAIN with not introducing relic in 6.0
-Unreal's rewards are lackluster
-The extremes so far do not deserve the title they are so undertuned
-No deep dungeon either.
-Lack of none savage challenging content: Not everyone has the time for a static and if you are a healer or tank, then you literally dont get loot until a month into savage unless pug and rng shine on you
3. Story quality has gone down this expansion with poor pacing and plot holes galore. New story is a repeat of skalla. Many expressed concern over the new arc being "a battle of values" when not everyone is on board with the current values in addition to yoshidas confusion over Venat's actions being seen as questionable and his surprise at emet selch being popular for being very well written

These 3 together make the bulk of ff14s gameplay loop and right now its not in a good place for a lot of people. Can it get better? Yes. But the signs are concerning.

So? None of that has anything to do with Island Sanctuary or Criterion Dungeons - which this thread is about.

[SturmChurro]

...

It's mostly many in the community hyping up the island sanctuary really. It's supposed to be this cute little novelty content, but people keep making it out to be instanced housing, or the fix to housing. If it's a make or break for people, people are going to be extremely disappointed.

[Midareyukki]

It's mostly many in the community hyping up the island sanctuary really. It's supposed to be this cute little novelty content, but people keep making it out to be instanced housing, or the fix to housing. If it's a make or break for people, people are going to be extremely disappointed.

I thought it was just some garden with your minions running around and free gardening plots?

[Oizen]

They cant even give the big cat guys ears.

[myahele]

It's mostly many in the community hyping up the island sanctuary really. It's supposed to be this cute little novelty content, but people keep making it out to be instanced housing, or the fix to housing. If it's a make or break for people, people are going to be extremely disappointed.

I expect people will be disappointed and will make posts about it. Expectations on what the Island Sanctuary has been growing since it was revealed and it doesn't help that Yoshida hasn't been giving us any new information or previews. People expect it to be something similar to Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon with a lot of customization.

Since it already exists in FF11, I'm thinking a more barebones version of Mog Garden.

[SturmChurro]

I thought it was just some garden with your minions running around and free gardening plots?

People have continuously hyped it up to be the fix for housing, and instanced housing, even after Yoshida has stated to temper expectations.

I expect people will be disappointed and will make posts about it. Expectations on what the Island Sanctuary has been growing since it was revealed and it doesn't help that Yoshida hasn't been giving us any new information or previews. People expect it to be something similar to Animal Crossing or Harvest Moon with a lot of customization.

Since it already exists in FF11, I'm thinking a more barebones version of Mog Garden.

People would probably be disappointed no matter what, but many are going to be disappointed over something that was never really promised in the first place.

[Adeacia]

I don't know what Island Sanctuary or the Criterion dungeons are really going to be so I'm not having my expectations based on what I hope they will be. I just see it as new content I'll probably participate in and that's enough. I'll base things on what they actually turn out to be, not on what I wanted them to be.

[Genz]

FFXIV has methodically cultivated an indifference to quality, nothing can break the game now.

[Lunalepsy]

For many people, myself included, Island Sanctuaries and Criterion Dungeons are make-or-break for this game.

Square Enix need to make them overwhelming successes or this game will truly reach its turning point and go the way of WoW.

SE has an extremely bad history with side systems and content. The first iteration of Diadem was so poor it was literally deleted from the game. Eureka was a hot pile of garbage on its first iteration. Bozja was frankly mediocre, outside of the raids.

And those are the "good" side systems that they've made. Stuff like Mahjong and Lords of Verminion are either delipidated or largely ignored by the wider community.

They have not been able to make a side system that the majority of the playerbase enjoys and engages in since Heavensward.

Island Sanctuary in particular is what many people are watching for. It needs to be perfect. The bar is high because the playerbase has hyped itself up to such high levels that a failure would be the straw that breaks the camel's back. A lot of the playerbase is already very dissatisfied, and Square Enix cannot have its main attraction be mediocre.

1. There needs to be a long term progression within Island Sanctuary, much like what you see in Stardew Valley. Regions and systems of the island should be unlocked by progressing through the system. This progression needs to be an at-your-own-pace system however. But there needs to be a long-term goal for players to work towards.

2. The customization UI needs to be beyond polished. It needs to be extremely easy to customize your island and decorate it the way you want to, beyond what we already have in housing. For example, players should be able to save and upload island layouts and share it with others.

3. The Island Sanctuary must have an incredible amount of graphical assets in addition to what we have in housing to truly allow for player creativity and freedom of expression. If it releases with like 3 choices of grass, 3 choices of tables, etc. it is going to be a failure.

4. Island Sanctuary should feed back into the main game by providing players with rewards like glamours or access to gardening.

If Sanctuary has gardening, I'm sold.

[sagacious]

I'm hoping that criterion dungeons are something that I can queue into and get done and not a "watch a video and memorize it before even considering joining a party" affair.

I so agree, I don't want to be muscle memorized to death and lose my interest in the game. I love potd and HoH if it is something like that where I can level up my alts while listening to great music I'm all in.